Since 2017, Bristol City Council has been using grant investment to tackle inequality across the city.
This grant programme, called the Bristol Impact Fund (BIF), brought together 8 of the council's grant funds to create a new programme.
This programme offers:
- medium and large grants: four-year grant funding to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations in the city
- small grants: two-year grant funding to encourage new ideas and involvement from more diverse communities
BIF1: 2017 to 2021 and BIF 2: 2021 to 2026
The first two rounds of the Bristol Impact Fund (BIF1 and BIF2) provided grant investment to projects that build the power of communities facing disadvantage and inequality in the city, and aimed to:
- increase resilience
- enable social action
- reduce disadvantage and inequality
- improve wellbeing
BIF3: One City, Many Communities, 2026 to 2030
The third round of the Bristol Impact Fund (BIF3) will build on the foundations of BIF1 and BIF2.
BIF3 will prioritise investments into neighbourhood organisations and citywide equalities communities that:
- increase the skills and knowledge held in community
- are aiming to address community-identified priorities through co-production with the community
- aim to tackle inequity
Applications for BIF3 medium and large grants closed on 10 June 2025. Funding decisions are expected to be communicated to applicants in December 2025.
We'll share more information about BIF3 small grants as it becomes available.
Medium or large grants
Applications for BIF3 medium and large grants have now closed. Funding decisions are expected to be communicated to applicants in December 2025.
BIF3 medium and large grants will run from April 2026 to March 2030.
- Medium grants between £11,000 and £55,000 per year
- Large grants between £56,000 and £110,000 per year
- Upper limit of £110,000 per year per organisation or £220,000 per year per partnership
Tackling hate crime and discrimination
- Ringfenced funding of £1.4 million
- Grants of up to £351,500 per year per partnership
Small grants
The purpose of the small grants fund is to encourage new ideas and involvement from more diverse communities.
Individual small grants range between £2,500 and £11,000 per year and run up to two years.
We'll share more information about BIF3 small grants as it becomes available.
Since the launch of BIF, 70 organisations have received grants and 7,000 volunteers have been involved. BIF has funded projects that have:
- reduced financial, food and fuel poverty
- tackled unemployment
- improved people's access to technology
- enabled people to better participate in their community
- reduced social isolation
- improved wellbeing
To find out more about the impact of BIF, see these independent evaluations:
Explore past and current funded projects
You can find details of past grants published on the grant funding data page (data.gov.uk).
Download our pdf Bristol Impact Fund 2 project summary 2021 to 2026(235 KB) , for an overview of all small, medium and large projects funded over the past five years.
If you any have questions, email investmentandgrants@bristol.gov.uk.